Marco Lauriola - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Marco Lauriola

Assessment, Jun 29, 2015

Two studies were conducted to examine the factor structure of attitude toward ambiguity, a broad ... more Two studies were conducted to examine the factor structure of attitude toward ambiguity, a broad personality construct that refers to personal reactions to perceived ambiguous stimuli in a variety of context and situations. Using samples from two countries, Study 1 mapped the hierarchical structure of 133 items from seven tolerance-intolerance of ambiguity scales (N = 360, Italy; N = 306, United States). Three major factors-Discomfort with Ambiguity, Moral Absolutism/Splitting, and Need for Complexity and Novelty-were recovered in each country with high replicability coefficients across samples. In Study 2 (N = 405, Italian community sample; N =366, English native speakers sample), we carried out a confirmatory analysis on selected factor markers. A bifactor model had an acceptable fit for each sample and reached the construct-level invariance for general and group factors. Convergent validity with related traits was assessed in both studies. We conclude that attitude toward ambigui...

Disability & …, Jan 1, 2009

The World Health Organisation Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS II) is an instrument deve... more The World Health Organisation Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS II) is an instrument developed by the World Health Organisation in order to assess behavioural limitations and restrictions to participation experienced by an individual, independently from a medical diagnosis. The conceptual frame of reference of this instrument is the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: ICF. Specifically, the instrument is designed to evaluate the functioning of the individual in six activity domains: Understanding and communicating, Getting around, Self-care, Getting along with people, Life activities, Participation in society.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2015

Speranza AM (2015) The Complex Trauma Questionnaire (ComplexTQ): development and preliminary psyc... more Speranza AM (2015) The Complex Trauma Questionnaire (ComplexTQ): development and preliminary psychometric properties of an instrument for measuring early relational trauma.

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2015

Anatomical, clinical, and neuroimaging evidence implicates the cerebellum in processing emotions ... more Anatomical, clinical, and neuroimaging evidence implicates the cerebellum in processing emotions and feelings. Moreover recent studies showed a cerebellar involvement in pathologies such as autism, schizophrenia and alexithymia, in which emotional processing have been found altered. However, cerebellar function in the modulation of emotional responses remains debated. In this study, emotions that are involved directly in decision-making were examined in 15 patients (six males; age range 17-60 years) affected by cerebellar damage and 15 well matched healthy controls. We used a gambling task, in which subjects' choices and evaluation of outcomes with regard to their anticipated and actual emotional impact were analyzed. Emotions, such as regret and relief, were elicited, based on the outcome of the unselected gamble. Interestingly, despite their ability to avoid regret in subsequent choices, patients affected by cerebellar lesions were significantly impaired in evaluating the feeling of regret subjectively. These results demonstrate that the cerebellum is involved in conscious recognizing of negative feelings caused by the sense of self-responsibility for an incorrect decision.

Personality and Individual Differences, 2015

ABSTRACT Relationships between Interest (I) and Deprivation (D) type epistemic curiosity (EC) and... more ABSTRACT Relationships between Interest (I) and Deprivation (D) type epistemic curiosity (EC) and self-regulation were evaluated in two studies. In Study 1 (Italians, N = 151), I-type EC correlated positively with positive outcome-expectancies and risk-taking, but negatively with thinking about negative outcomes. D-type EC correlated positively with emotional restraint, thoughtful evaluation, and concern over negative outcomes and potential risks. In Study 2 (Americans, N = 218; Germans, N = 56), I-type EC correlated positively with behavioral activation, especially fun seeking, whereas D-type correlated negatively with fun seeking. Neither EC scale correlated significantly with behavioral inhibition. These findings suggest that I-type EC corresponds to fun, carefree and optimistic approaches to learning, while D-type EC reflects greater thoughtfulness and caution regarding knowledge-search.

PLoS ONE

Recent theories suggest an important role of neuroticism, extraversion, attitudes, and global pos... more Recent theories suggest an important role of neuroticism, extraversion, attitudes, and global positive orientations as predictors of subjective happiness. We examined whether positivity mediates the hypothesized relations in a community sample of 504 adults between the ages of 20 and 60 years old (females = 50%). A model with significant paths from neuroticism to subjective happiness, from extraversion and neuroticism to positivity, and from positivity to subjective happiness fitted the data (Satorra-Bentler scaled chi-square (38) = 105.91; Comparative Fit Index = .96; Non-Normed Fit Index = .95; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = .060; 90% confidence interval = .046, .073). The percentage of subjective happiness variance accounted for by personality traits was only about 48%, whereas adding positivity as a mediating factor increased the explained amount of subjective happiness to 78%. The mediation model was invariant by age and gender. The results show that the effect of extraversion on happiness was fully mediated by positivity, whereas the effect of neuroticism was only partially mediated. Implications for happiness studies are also discussed.

Psychological Reports, 1996

... Although Siegert, Patten, Taylor, and McCormick (1988) showed that a two-factor solution was ... more ... Although Siegert, Patten, Taylor, and McCormick (1988) showed that a two-factor solution was more congru-ent, Waller and Waldman (1990) found that the three factors represented the best solution for eight of the nine cohorts of ... 1. SANTO F. Di NUOVO, SERAFINO BUONO. ...

Personality and Individual Differences, 2001

... we summarize this divergent literature, then we present the results of an exploratory study a... more ... we summarize this divergent literature, then we present the results of an exploratory study aimed at ... Sixty risky decision-making trials were generated and presented to the subjects in random order. ... P and a zero outcome with probability 1−P. Subjects were informed about the ...

$Research paper thumbnail of Psychological correlates of eye refractive errors$

Personality and Individual Differences, 1997

In order to study psychological correlates of refractive errors, a Short Adjective Checklist meas... more In order to study psychological correlates of refractive errors, a Short Adjective Checklist measuring the Big Five (SACBIF) and a scale of Activities involving Near Vision (NVAL) were administered to a sample of 88 patients in various optometric centres. Both the patients' refraction and that of their parents was measured. The relationships between refraction, visual behaviour, personality factors and the refractive errors in parents were investigated using a correlational approach. Results indicate that the main correlate of simple myopia is the time spent in near vision, while this variable is not correlated at all with the presence of an astigmatism. However, simple myopia occurs more frequently if the mother is affected by the same ametropia, while astigmatism occurs if one or both parents are astigmatic. Among personality variables, myopic individuals seem to tend toward Conscientiousness, Introversion and Mental Closeness, providing evidence for psychological differentiation of myopes from other refractive types.

Journal of the International AIDS Society, 2008

Clinical, immunological and virologic parameters were assessed in HIV-infected antiretroviral (AR... more Clinical, immunological and virologic parameters were assessed in HIV-infected antiretroviral (ARV) naïve patients who started therapy with either Truvada ® (TVD) or Combivir ® (CBV) in combination with efavirenz (EFV) or a protease inhibitor (PI).

Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 2001

... Correspondence to: Marco Lauriola, Department of ... and that they are willing to pay money t... more ... Correspondence to: Marco Lauriola, Department of ... and that they are willing to pay money to avoid it, setting a higher purchase price for the fifty±fifty unambiguous alternative than for the ambiguous one (eg Raiffa, 1961; Becker and Bronson, 1964; Curley, Yates and Abrams ...

Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2012

Increasing age is associated with subtle but meaningful changes in decision-making. It is unknown... more Increasing age is associated with subtle but meaningful changes in decision-making. It is unknown, however, to what degree these psychological changes are reflective of agerelated changes in decision quality. Here, we investigated the effect of age on latent cognitive processes associated with risky decision-making on the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART). In the BART, participants repetitively inflate a balloon in order to increase potential reward. At any point, participants can decide to cash-out to harvest the reward, or they can continue, risking a balloon pop that erases all earnings. We found that among seniors, increasing age was associated with greater reward-related risk taking when the balloon has a higher probability of popping (i.e., a "high risk" condition). Cognitive modeling results from hierarchical Bayesian estimation suggested that performance differences were due to increased reward sensitivity in high risk conditions in seniors.

Disability & Rehabilitation, 2009

Cognitive Processing, 2009

The System Usability Scale (SUS), developed by Brooke (Usability evaluation in industry, Taylor &... more The System Usability Scale (SUS), developed by Brooke (Usability evaluation in industry, Taylor & Francis, London, pp 189-194, 1996), had a great success among usability practitioners since it is a quick and easy to use measure for collecting users' usability evaluation of a system. Recently, Lewis and Sauro (Proceedings of the human computer interaction international conference (HCII 2009), San Diego CA, USA, 2009) have proposed a two-factor structure-Usability (8 items) and Learnability (2 items)suggesting that practitioners might take advantage of these new factors to extract additional information from SUS data. In order to verify the dimensionality in the SUS' two-component structure, we estimated the parameters and tested with a structural equation model the SUS structure on a sample of 196 university users. Our data indicated that both the unidimensional model and the two-factor model with uncorrelated factors proposed by Lewis and Sauro (Proceedings of the human computer interaction international conference (HCII 2009), San Diego CA, USA, 2009) had a not satisfactory fit to the data. We thus released the hypothesis that Usability and Learnability are independent components of SUS ratings and tested a less restrictive model with correlated factors. This model not only yielded a good fit to the data, but it was also significantly more appropriate to represent the structure of SUS ratings.

Two studies were conducted to examine the factor structure of attitude toward ambiguity, a broad ... more Two studies were conducted to examine the factor structure of attitude toward ambiguity, a broad personality construct that refers to personal reactions to perceived ambiguous stimuli in a variety of context and situations. Using samples from two countries, Study 1 mapped the hierarchical structure of 133 items from seven tolerance–intolerance of ambiguity scales (N = 360, Italy; N = 306, United States). Three major factors—Discomfort with Ambiguity, Moral Absolutism/Splitting, and Need for Complexity and Novelty—were recovered in each country with high replicability coefficients across samples. In Study 2 (N = 405, Italian community sample; N =366, English native speakers sample), we carried out a confirmatory analysis on selected factor markers. A bifactor model had an acceptable fit for each sample and reached the construct-level invariance for general and group factors. Convergent validity with related traits was assessed in both studies. We conclude that attitude toward ambiguity can be best represented a multidimensional construct involving affective (Discomfort with Ambiguity), cognitive (Moral Absolutism/Splitting), and epistemic (Need for Complexity and Novelty) components.

Assessment, Jun 29, 2015

Disability & …, Jan 1, 2009

Frontiers in Psychology, 2015

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2015

Personality and Individual Differences, 2015

PLoS ONE

Psychological Reports, 1996

Personality and Individual Differences, 2001

$Research paper thumbnail of Psychological correlates of eye refractive errors$

Personality and Individual Differences, 1997

Journal of the International AIDS Society, 2008

Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 2001

Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2012

Disability & Rehabilitation, 2009

Cognitive Processing, 2009

Two studies were conducted to examine the factor structure of attitude toward ambiguity, a broad ... more Two studies were conducted to examine the factor structure of attitude toward ambiguity, a broad personality construct that refers to personal reactions to perceived ambiguous stimuli in a variety of context and situations. Using samples from two countries, Study 1 mapped the hierarchical structure of 133 items from seven tolerance–intolerance of ambiguity scales (N = 360, Italy; N = 306, United States). Three major factors—Discomfort with Ambiguity, Moral Absolutism/Splitting, and Need for Complexity and Novelty—were recovered in each country with high replicability coefficients across samples. In Study 2 (N = 405, Italian community sample; N =366, English native speakers sample), we carried out a confirmatory analysis on selected factor markers. A bifactor model had an acceptable fit for each sample and reached the construct-level invariance for general and group factors. Convergent validity with related traits was assessed in both studies. We conclude that attitude toward ambiguity can be best represented a multidimensional construct involving affective (Discomfort with Ambiguity), cognitive (Moral Absolutism/Splitting), and epistemic (Need for Complexity and Novelty) components.